


Sailors Take Warning

by RedLeaderfic



Category: World Wrestling Entertainment
Genre: Alternate Universe - Pirate, Enemies to Lovers, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-26
Updated: 2018-08-26
Packaged: 2019-06-22 01:46:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,401
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15571026
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RedLeaderfic/pseuds/RedLeaderfic
Summary: The chance to capture and ransom a gentleman isn't one that comes around every day, and Captain Kendrick isn't the kind of pirate who lets chances pass him by.This plan gets complicated when it turns out Jack Gallagher at heart isn't really much of a gentleman at all.





	Sailors Take Warning

**Author's Note:**

  * For [beedekka](https://archiveofourown.org/users/beedekka/gifts).



> Happy ExD day!

Kendrick watched the burning yacht slowly sink beneath the waves, the satisfaction of a long, successful chase washing over him. There'd been some talk of going after the lifeboats, taking a few more prisoners but that had seemed to be more trouble than it was worth. He had what he’d been after, finally.

His victory musings were rudely interrupted when one of the deckhands tapped him on the shoulder. “Um…Cap’n?”

“What?” He folded up the spyglass and spun around.

“It’s the, um…the prisoner, sir. We think…well, we all think you should handle him, is all.”

Kendrick stared at the man for a good long time. Truth be told he knew he didn’t have a good crew, or maybe not even a competent crew – takes hadn’t been very good for a while – but even they should be able to handle one prisoner. “What happened? Did he get loose?”

“Well, no.”

“Did he attack any of you before you tied him up?”

“He did bloody up Perkins’ face before we got him settled, but no, not….”

“Then _what is the problem_?”

“He just…he just keeps _looking_ at us.”

Kendrick handed his spyglass to the man for questionably safe keeping and stomped his way down to the hold, grabbing a lantern off a wall peg in the process. When his prisoner looked up Kendrick felt a little thrill rush through him, enough that he almost missed the last rung of the ladder. In a way he almost understood what had sent the rest of his men scattering. Even restrained and tied to a pillar Jack Gallagher certainly did have a way of looking at a person. “You’re scaring my men. Stop it.”

“I expected you to have a higher caliber of crew. Disappointing, almost.” If it weren’t for the rumpled suit and disheveled hair – and the ropes securing him to the pillar, of course – Kendrick almost would have thought they were about to discuss where to hold the tea, or which horse was the best to bet on in the next royal race, Gentleman Jack seemed so little affected by his current predicament. Kendrick knew he should be insulted at the last of respect but instead it gave him another of those little thrills. “Captain Kendrick, for months you have been stalking every schooner, sloop, yacht and rowboat that had the misfortune to have my name attached to it and now you have finally assaulted my person. Will you give me the courtesy of allowing me to ask _why_?”

“Shouldn’t be too hard to figure out: I’m gonna ransom you for a whole lot of money.” Honestly, he wasn’t sure how that wasn’t obvious. “Gentlemen of your rank don’t play around where my kind can find you often enough to pass you by, y’know.”

“So this is purely about money.”

Kendrick paused. “What else would it be about?” There was something… _interesting_ in Gallagher’s expression when he said that, like that had been the most insulting thing Kendrick could have said. Something lean and feral and very ungentleman-like. “So what’s your deal, anyway? You knew I kept circling your ships, why’d you keep venturing out so far? You’d think you wanted to get captured.”

“I don’t constrain my movements because hooligans might attack me.”

Kendrick laughed. “I guess you’ve got guts, I’ll give you that.” He glanced up at hatch to see at least four deckhands trying to peer in, as if they were expecting Gallagher to…Kendrick didn’t know, turn into a beast and drown him. “One of you idiots, throw me down a knife.” After some questioning looks one of them did so and he heard an audible gasp from above when he cut Gallagher free. “Set up a hammock in my cabin for our _guest_ ,” he said, moving aside as Gallagher rubbed his wrists, blinking at Kendrick in wary confusion. “He’s a gentleman, after all and we are going to treat him like one.”  


***

  
That had been impulsive and Kendrick regretted it just a little bit when he retired to his cabin late that night and startled himself at finding Gallagher reclining in a hastily done up hammock on the other side of the room from his own, reading one of his nautical books. He thought he covered it up quickly. “No complaining about the accommodations,” he said, gesturing at the small room. “As you can see it’s the same as mine.”

“Mmm,” Gallagher said, turning a page. Kendrick shrugged and pulled his boots off, trying to stretch some of the soreness out of his muscles. It had been a good day, an accomplished day, but it had been a long one and he wasn’t twenty years old anymore. “What happened to you, Captain Kendrick?”

Kendrick started, his head snapping up. “What do you mean?”

“I know your name, of course. You used to be one of the Empire’s foremost privateers, you seemed to have fine future ahead of you. And then nothing. What happened to you?”

“Oh, that.” Kendrick studied the grain in the floorboards. “Made some mistakes, made some enemies. Not blaming anyone but myself, it was what it was, but I guess it got too much for all those high and mighties. Told me my services were no longer required, wished me well in all my future endeavors. Took my ship. Took my _life_.” Kendrick shook his head; he didn’t know how many years would have to go by before that all stopped being fresh, but clearly it hadn’t been enough.

“So then of course you turn to piracy.”

Kendrick felt a grim smile spread over his face. “They could take my ship but damned if they could stop me from sailing. Picked out the prettiest little ship in their fleet, hoisted my flag on it and now it’s mine. If I sail or if I sink it’s by my standards now.” Kendrick worked his fingers into the ropes of the hammock and closed his eyes; a thought had occurred to him a few hours ago and he hadn’t been able to banish it. “Did you let us capture you?”

Gallagher gave him a look that seemed entirely _too_ innocent to be believed. “Why would I do that?”

Kendrick shook his head. “I’ve been circling you long enough that you know how must speed we can muster, but you still went out in a vessel you knew we could outrun, with a crew so small it was practically skeleton. No weapons on any of them. Barely put up any fight.”

Gallagher went back to his borrowed book. “My dear Captain, I would have to be some kind of madman to _want_ to be captured by a pirate, wouldn’t I?”

Kendrick felt that little thrill again. Being in a room with Gallagher was like being locked in with a tiger, or like piloting the ship in a lightning storm. He didn’t know what he’d expected Gallagher to be like – by reputation he was something of a fop, if an unexpectantly accomplished one – but whatever he’d been expecting this certainly wasn’t it. 

Kendrick rather liked it. “I imagine you would be.”  


***

  
The mistake hadn’t been talking about bare knuckle with Gallagher – Gallagher actually had a fairly impressive record in the fighting ring, taking it more seriously than most of his ilk do when they decide to go slumming among the lower classes. No, the problem was that Kendrick had let the crew overhead the two of them talk about it. Within days the story had mutated into rumors that the captain was going to take the fists to their unexpectedly long term guest and knock a few of his airs out of him. Kendrick had no one but himself to blame, life on the deck could get mighty boring when there was no action to be had and the crew had to keep themselves entertained somehow. He knew he should quash all the talk; it was bad for discipline to let the crew talk about him behind his back and he knew full well that if a fight happened and he lost they would turn on him like sharks on a chum line, that was just the way of piracy.

He didn’t, though. His own record in the fighting ring wasn’t too shabby after all and he was extremely curious whether Gallagher’s was genuine or typical upper class prideful inflation. He’d heard such stories about Jack Gallagher. Surely they couldn’t all be true.

And it had been so long since he’d had a really good fight. 

On a calm, hot morning where the sea stretched out around his ship like an endless sheet of glass someone drew a ring in chalk on the aft deck and everyone gathered around, placing loud side bets on their captain and quiet ones on their captive when they thought the captain was out of earshot. Kendrick didn’t mind, he would get a cut of the winnings whichever way things fell if he played this correctly.

Kendrick pushed his hair off his face and watched Gallagher walk the perimeter of the chalk circle; they’d both stripped to the waist and it was the first time Kendrick had been able to study Gallagher out of his gentleman drag. Leaner than Kendrick but he was rarely the largest man in a fight himself, he knew better than anyone how little that could mean once the punches started flying. Gallagher walked with his back ramrod straight, then suddenly spun on his heel and faced Kendrick with a haughty little bow. 

This wasn’t the kind of fight where Kendrick had to wait for a bell. He came out with a fast flurry, surprised when Gallagher sidestepped. The next exchange went better for him but came with the frustrating sense that Gallagher was letting the punches land, picking his spots. Gallagher’s lips twitched up in a quick smirk and he lashed out with a straight jab that caught Kendrick square on the cheek, staggering him back almost out of the circle before he caught his balance. “Point for me,” Gallagher said, putting a strut into his stride before motioning for Kendrick to come forward for more.

Kendrick smiled. This was even more fun than he’d hoped it would be.

The next few points went his way but was the minutes ticked by Kendrick knew he would have to end this, and soon. Gallagher didn’t defend like any fighter he’d met before, taking clear petty joy in being as frustrating as possible, and Kendrick knew his biggest flaw was getting frustrated too easily. At one point Gallagher ducked one of his punches and sprung back into a handstand, throwing Kendrick off long enough for Gallagher to catch him right in the eye. Kendrick dropped down to one knee, faking that the injury was worse than it was and then coming up with a dirty elbow right to the point of Gallagher’s jaw when he came close to investigate. He trapped Gallagher’s arm and landed two rabbit punches to the back of his head before Gallagher could pull away, outraged fury so bright in his eyes Kendrick laughed. “You forget where you were, Jack?”

Gallagher wiped a spot of blood from his lips and something about him…changed, slightly. Kendrick felt his pulse pound in his ears as something wild and feral took over Gallagher’s face for an instant, then he was on Kendrick with a flurry of haymakers Kendrick couldn’t even begin to dodge. He weathered the storm, the shouts of his crew muffled as he worked to protect his head, then he answered with a series of body blows that put Gallagher down to one knee. 

Kendrick realized one second too late that Gallagehr had stolen his trick. Both his knees buckled as Gallagher rocked him with the hardest uppercut Kendrick had ever been hit with; he lost a second or two and found himself being pulled to his feet by his hair. His legs almost shook out from under him again and Gallagher hit him in the mouth. Kendrick spat blood on the deck and looked up; the deck was spinning, the watching faces of the crew blending together into one eager, bloodthirsty blur. He attacked with a wild swing only to have Gallagher trap his arm the way Kendrick had his earlier, pulling him forward and almost off his feet. “Hit me now,” Gallagher said into his ear, his voice so low Kendrick almost couldn’t make it out.

Kendrick pulled back and attacked with a straight, solid jab that started Gallagher’s eye swelling before he even fell to the deck. Kendrick leapt on top of him to keep up the assault but Gallagher raised both hands in front of his face. “I yield!”

It took a few moments for Kendrick to remember what that meant but he finally drew back, accepting a cloth from one of the crew to wipe his face. “Get him cleaned up,” Kendrick said, gesturing at Gallagher and stumbling toward his cabin, how close that had come making him shake. He was still sitting on the edge of his hammock when Gallagher came in some time later, having endured the best first aid his doctor-less crew could muster. 

Kendrick didn’t look up at him. “Why did you give me the fight?”

Gallagher scoffed. “Because I have no wish to lead this crew of yours, please spare me that.” He tipped Kendrick’s face up, studying the damage, then he took a bottle of rum from Kendrick’s private stash, drank straight from the bottle and then handed it to Kendrick. 

“It was yours if you’d wanted it,” Kendrick said, taking a long swallow himself. 

“I would be terrible captain.”

“But a fine pirate.” Kendrick had a woozy moment and felt Gallagher’s hand go to his arm to steady him, so heated from the fight it felt like a brand. Gallagher’s pale face was face was still flushed, his hair askew and Kendrick could still see hints of that feral other Gallagher he’d brought out during the fight. He lay back in the hammock, keenly aware of how close Gallagher was standing to him; he teased his tongue along his split lip, holding Gallagher’s gaze. The invitation was unspoken but he could see the surprise in Gallagher’s eyes as he recognized it, felt it in how Gallagher’s nails dug into his arm.

Kendrick laughed when he saw Gallagher visibly gather up his dignity and pull back, retreating back across the room to his own hammock. “You were wasted on a gentle birth,” Kendrick said, stretching out with his bottle of rum. Gallagher didn’t answer and Kendrick wondered if maybe he had won that fight after all. “Why are you still on my ship, Jack?”

“Because I’m your captive.”

Kendrick laughed to himself again. “All right, then.”

All was quiet for a long time. “I _liked_ that fight,” Gallagher said.

Kendrick smiled. “Me too.”

***

Kendrick kept his spyglass trained on the horizon, the setting sun at his back as Gallagher walked up. “You’ve kept yourself scarce today, Captain.”

“Mm.” He pursed his lips, trying to refine the setting.

“Fine. Care to tell me why we’ve made six course corrections today? I’m tired of tripping over sick members for your crew from all the lurching around.”

“Why are you still on my ship, Jack?”

Kendrick saw Gallagher’s eyes narrow for an instant before his expression went back to careful neutrality. “You keep asking me that.”

“You keep not answering. Ransom should have been delivered weeks ago now, or at least we should have gotten word of ransom. We’ve done three raids and you didn’t try to escape during any of them. Been within swimming distance of shore more than once.”

“I’ve never had the right opportunity, I suppose.”

Kendrick spared him a glace before going back to the horizon. “You have friends in the Empire, Jack? That why you’ve been biding your time?”

Gallagher only rolled his eyes. “No one I’d expect to go to lengths for me, no. Why do you ask.”

Kendrick folded up his spyglass. “Because someone with their flag has been following us for most of the day.”

***

Gulak’s cutter was fast and mobile and Kendrick was running out of tricks. He’d been hoping it would be Ali maybe, who could be talked to and tricked, or even one of Alexander’s fleet, he’d dealt with them before. Gulak was a worst case scenario, practically a pirate himself. His only consolation was that Gallagher seemed even more aghast as the prospect of being rescued by Drew Gulak as Kendrick was at having the man come to steal his prize away.

He could only delay the inevitable for so long. Kendrick locked Gallagher in the hold and prepared the crew to be boarded; Gulak’s ship was bigger but Kendrick could use his whole crew for defense, not limit himself to a smaller party. It wasn’t much of an advantage but it was all he had. 

But one that seemed to work. Kendrick even had the upper hand on Gulak in the fighting, which wasn’t an easy task, or at least he had until Gulak’s idiot henchman first mate caught him from behind. Kendrick swung back with the hilt of his rapier to get Nese away but that was the final opening Gulak needed. Kendrick dodged just enough that the point of Gulak’s cutlass went through his shoulder instead of his chest but he wasn’t sure that had helped himself when the pain pushed him down to his knees anyway. Gulak put the point of his cutlass under Kendrick’s chin as Nese held him up by his hair. “Tony found something very interesting in your hold,” Gulak said, and Kendrick almost wouldn’t have minded Gulak being about to kill him if he wouldn’t be so smug about it. He managed to look up and Gallagher behind Nese. Gulak grinned. “There’s an award for rescuing him _and_ for bringing you in. Good day for me.”

The fighting on deck had stopped. Nese wrenched his arms behind his back, and Kendrick gritted his teeth to ¬keep from screaming. “Hey Drew, the bounty on Kendrick was alive or dead, right?”

Drew smiled. “You know what? I think you’re right.”

Kendrick’s vision was getting hazy but he spotted the glint of something metallic in Gallagher’s hand. “Let the captain go,” Gallagher said, his voice calm and casual as if he were at a garden party. 

“Everything’s fine now. Don’t worry, this is all part of making a better….”

Before any of them had time to blink Kendrick saw the bone handled knife he kept on his desk in his cabin at Nese’s throat. “Don’t make me repeat myself.”

Kendrick took advantage of the distraction to chop block Gulak off his feet. That was all Kendrick had left though; he crumpled to the deck as the fighting reignited around him. The next time he opened his eyes the deck was oddly quiet and Jack Gallagher was standing over him, backlit by the sun and holding Gulak’s cutlass. Kendrick nodded. _I’ve never had the right opportunity, I suppose._ “Go ahead.”

There was a slight moment of hesitation, almost enough that Kendrick thought he’d imagined it, but Gallagher threw the cutlass away and knelt beside him. “Easy, now,” Gallagher said, using his own shirt to try to stem Kendrick’s bleeding shoulder. “We pushed them back to their own ship.”

“We,” Kendrick said, fighting to keep his eyes open. “What have you been playing at all this time, Jack?”

Kendrick saw something shift in Gallagher’s expression but it was gone before he could be sure it had been there. Instead of answering Gallagher helped him back to his cabin, closing the door behind them.  


***

  
The chills started a few hours later, then the fever. It frightened Kendrick at first, it was too early for the wound to be festering and it wasn’t that bad, really, he’d been wounded worse before but it wasn’t too long before he was in too much pain and too short of breath of worry about anything.

He faded in and out. At one point he woke up and realized they were docked, some island he didn’t recognize, another time he came to in time to overhear Gallagher giving hushed orders to Perkins and a few of his more competent crewmen. 

Kendrick wasn’t sure how much time passed but the next time he woke up to a bitter taste; he tried to gag but a hand clamped hard over his mouth. “Oh good, you’re up,” he heard, recognizing it in a distant way as Gallagher’s voice. “Try to keep this against your gums,” Gallagher said, and there was the bitter taste again, a leafy texture against his cheek. “Gulak uses poison on his blades,” Gallagher said, and Kendrick tried to focus. “He plays at refinement but he’s a lout at heart. It’s why he keeps being expelled from the dueling societies. I know the antidote for it but it took some doing to find the ingredients.” Kendrick shivered hard and Gallagher put one hand on his chest.

“Why?”

Gallagher crouched by his hammock, that cunning undisguised look on his face. “You were right, of course. I did allow you to capture me.” Kendrick felt a cold thrill that had nothing to do with poison. “You had been harassing my ships for months, disrupting my business. It was maddening, really. You wondered about ransom, there was never going to be any. I left strict orders that no one was to respond to any requests. This was a problem I was determined to solve by myself, with my own hands.” His expression went distant. “But I suppose you were right about that, too. I’m not a very good excuse for a gentleman.”

It took a few tries to speak, Kendrick’s throat feeling as rough as if he’s swallowed a handful of razors. “Why are you on my ship, Jack?”

“I don’t rightly know myself anymore,” Gallagher said. “But I do know I feel more myself here than I have anywhere else.” He leaned in close, his lips right to Kendrick’s ear. “So you are not allowed to die yet, Captain. I liked our fight too much.”

***

It was a long, slow recovery until they had the chance to pay Drew Gulak the favor. Kendrick’s arm was still not back to full strength but when the cannon snapped Gulak’s mast in two Kendrick didn’t think he’d ever felt better in his life. Gallagher leaned against the deck railing, incongruous in his gentleman’s clothes as they watched the panic on the other ship, his hand on Kendrick’s shoulder. “Ready?”

Kendrick grinned. “To give Drew Gulak a bad day? Always ready.”

He lost track of Gallagher in the fighting and Gulak got away in the lifeboat in the chaos but they captured both Nese and the ship so as a day’s work went this was a good one. He’d just begun to worry about Gallagher when he heard a shout from starboard and looked up to see Gallagher swing himself over the edge of the deck, his clothes soaked and ruined but eyes savage as he threw Gulak’s cutlass and a leather bound ledger at Kendrick’s feet. “Couldn’t get him, but that might be even better,” he said as Kendrick picked up the ledger. “That’s Gulak’s private itinerary. We now have the shipping schedule for the Empire’s entire fleet.”

Kendrick put the ledger under his arm and examined the cutlass, finally handing it back to Gallagher hilt first. Gallagher slid the sword into his belt and wordlessly followed when Kendrick turned to go back to their cabin, the hair on the back of Kendrick’s neck standing up as he heard those footsteps behind him. The effect of the fight was still on Gallagher, turning him into that other man he became when his blood heated up, and Kendrick didn’t intend to let it go to waste. 

Not that he needed to have worried. The instant he tossed the ledger on his desk to be examined later Gallagher backed him against the wall, kissing him until Kendrick went lightheaded. This was very quickly becoming his favorite part of any raid. “Wasn’t sure you’d be back this time,” Kendrick said when Gallagher finally let him space to talk and breathe.

Gallagher’s eyes were dark looking out from his gentleman’s disguise. “You need to stop being surprised.” 

Kendrick let Gallagher maneuver him over to the desk and sat perched on the edge of it, Gallagher’s hands in his shirt. Jack Gallagher was going to be a _problem_ for him someday, Kendrick knew that as well as he knew each plank of his ship. He sighed as Gallagher kissed him again, his thumb tracing the still healing scar on his shoulder with the sword that had caused it still hanging dangerously close at his waist. 

But that was tomorrow’s problem. Today was nothing but clear skies and smooth seas.

***

Kendrick crouched out of sight behind the railing, watching Gallagher wave enthusiastically wave to whoever was on the opposite deck. “They still letting us approach?”

“Of course they are,” Gallagher said, his voice low and the smile on his face still open and unassuming. “I told you flying my banner would work. Alexander and I have had business dealings in the past, it’s perfectly normal I would hail him.”

“That trick’s not going to work too many more times. Word will get out.”

“It certainly seems to be working now.”

“You sure about this?” Gallagher glanced down at him. “This won’t be like going after Gulak, no one gives a shit if he takes some losses. Say goodbye to your old life after targeting one of the golden fleet ships.”

“I secured what I needed last time we went ashore.” Gallagher’s smile slipped from the fop mask to something much truer. “And truth be told a part of me is looking forward to it.”

“That’s all I need to hear.” Kendrick sprang up, rapier in hand as the crew behind switched out Gallagher’s coat of arms for his own flag, and relished the shock and panic in the opposite look out’s face. “Take no quarter and give no ground.”

“Never have.”

Kendrick kissed him, holding on tight to the boarding rope. “Let’s tell everyone in the Empire who we are.”

Their boots hit the deck of the enemy ship at the same time and the fight was on.


End file.
